I paint on my quilts because I like to embellish and decorate. Once a design is finished in cloth I like to keep going and enhance as much as possible. I like to take advantage of all of the possibilities and ideas that fill the space of the artwork. In a way, painting on an already finished quilt is to make it less precious -- to take the risk of losing it or messing it up. But in another way, painting on a quilt and embellishing it is to make it more precious and jewel-like. Making "mistakes" is interesting because that changes the course of things -- it makes unexpected things happen. Painting is a way of emphasizing and exploring those little quirks that make the art very personal.
I like embellishing with buttons and beads. I love folk art such as Watts Towers in Los Angeles which involves rich surfaces made up of concrete with rocks, jewels and chips of dishes and other small objects stuck in it. I like making fimo buttons and adding them to my quilts and also the "found object" quality of some buttons is nice. It's fun to go to an antique store and buy a jar full of old buttons.
I have always been a collector of sorts (I collect buttons, salt and pepper shakers, dolls). An embellished quilt has the feeling of a collection.
My quilts have been changing and evolving over the years. I was trained as a painter and began making quilts in the late 60's. I started out making simple patchwork, then began using photographic images during the 70's. After that the work evolved into a more fantasy based vocabulary. I use a lot of machine applique, and more recently have begun to heavily embellish my quilts with paint, buttons, beads, braids.
I owe a debt of gratitude to artists such as Dennis Pearson, Roy DeForest, Joan Brown, David Gilhooley, to name just a few; to my grandmother, Therese McMahan; all the women who have ever made quilts; all the people in the work who now either make quilts or appreciate them; and to the folk artist of the earth.


Selected One-Person Exhibitions
d.p. Fong Galleries, San Jose, CA
UOP Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA
Stanford Faculty Club, Stanford, CA
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Smith Anderson Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Redding Museum, Redding, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions
"Full Deck Art Quilts," Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
"Quilt National", 1995, '93, '91, '89, '87, '85, '83
"Contemporary American Quilts," Crafts Council, London, England
"Quilt Festival," Tokyo, Japan
and many others

Collections/Commissions
American Crafts Museum
Works Created for the Clinton White House "Christmas Celebration 1993"
Butterfly," and "Animal Spiral," 14' x 14' quilts, San Jose Convention Center

Awards
"Quilts Japan Prize," Quilt National '95"
First Place KTEH Art Auction
Most Innovative Use of Medium Award, Quilt National '85,
Athens, OH
American Craft Award, Kraus Sikes

Education
B.S. University of Wisconsin
M.A. San Jose State University

WORKSHOP INFORMATION

This Fall I will be teaching MIXED MEDIA QUILTING TECHNIQUES in my studio on Lincoln Ave. in Willow Glen. The classes will be held on the last weekend of each month--Saturday and Sunday--from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I would love to have you come and join me in these weekends of fun.
Mixed media quilts can make a bold artistic statement by combining traditional quilting techniques with expressionistic imagery and materials. We use an intuitive approach to creating a pictorial quilt by encouraging journal writing to stimulate the creative process and promote freedom with the use of fabric. Drawings are translated on to fabric using paper, pen and ... scissors. With our sewing machines, we use straight stitch and satin stitch and experiment with embellishments such as buttons and beads. We also explore acrylic paints and squeeze-bottle painting techniques on fabric. Slides are shown and students are able to share some of their previous artwork for inspiration.